Do you or your students enjoy playing escape the room games? These games are pretty popular and what you have to do is to collect the items, solve the puzzles using hints and a find a way to get out of the locked room.

Room Escape Maker is a website that gives you and your students a chance to create their own escape the room games. You can choose to play among many created games that have been done by others or choose to create your own game by clicking on ‘Create Game’ button. You can add different backgrounds, items and clues to your game. 

[How to Use Solvemoji, a tool that offers math puzzles that use emojis.]

You can play the games as a whole class which will promote the collaboration and problem solving skills of the students. Students can write walkthroughs for the games that are already on the website for their friends. They may review the games for each other. You may assign a game and give the walkthroughs of the game with some blanks and ask the students to complete them. 

cross-posted at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org

Özge Karaoglu is an English teacher and educational consultant in teaching young learners and teaching with web-based technologies. She is the author of Minigon ELT book series, which aims to teach English to young learners through stories. Read more of her ideas about teaching English through technology and Web-based tools at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org.

Guest post by Steven Baule: As most T&L readers know, the Hour of Code is an organization set up to support integrating computer science instruction into K-12 education. Each year, during Computer Science Education Week, the first full week of December, the Hour of Code organization organizes and supports multiple events to highlight the need for computer science skills. As we are about six months away from CSE Week, it seems like a good time to remind educators about the need to prepare for the event to make sure students have opportunities to fully participate. With six months’ notice, hopefully, all students will have the opportunity to participate in learning about computer science and experiencing the satisfaction of successfully completing a coding project. Code.org outlines nine things that could be done to assist the development of K-12 computer science resources. Code.org and Hour of Code both offer a range of activities for teachers to use with their students. Code Academy, Code Avengers, Khan Academy, and Exploring Computer Science are additional potential resources for teachers to use with their students. As most educators have a bit less stressful schedule in July, it seems like a good time to encourage everyone to help expand the CS experiences of our students this fall and into the future.

[Hummingbird Gets a Microbit Upgrade]

It's Been Awhile
I have to say that this has been the longest absence of blog posts that I have had since I began blogging in 2010. I am currently in my second year at Gilbert Public Schools and my last post was the same month I began my new position, so I have been a bit busy making the transition. However, no more excuses, it is time to get back to sharing, collaborating, and growing on the Interweb.

CS for All
If you have been following Computer Science (CS) for the last couple of years, you are most likely familiar with the various CS initiatives at the federal and state levels. President Obama brought attention on the federal level when he addressed the need for better CS education in his 2016 State of Union Address and followed with his initiative calling for $4 billion in funding and $100 million to districts for teacher training, materials and partnerships. We all know now that $4 billion was not committed too, however, the attention brought to the topic and movement from smaller initiatives have continued to gain momentum and CS initiatives are growing across the country. The current administration under President Trump, in September 2017, issued a memorandum directing the Department of Education to spend $200 million in grants to supporting STEM programs, including CS. Ivanka Trump, who is an adviser to the President, has also been active in supporting STEM education and more specifically for girls. In September, Ivanka, Hadi Partovi (Code.org), and Brad Smith (Microsoft President), visited an elementary school in Virginia to discuss women in STEM fields, Hour of Code, and support for CS in schools with students. This type of awareness and support will need to continue from multiple levels to move CS for all and STEM related education in the right direction.

Why CS
I often hear the question, why is CS important for our students, not all students are going to become coders. True, not all students will be interested in coding, but CS is more than coding and the computational thinking process applies to more than CS. Computational thinking is about the process of solving a problem and potentially using technology for the outcome. The process involves collecting and processing data, looking for patterns, creating the steps to solve the problem and testing the solution for accuracy and efficiency. These are skills that all students can use in a variety of disciplines.

If we take a look at the data around open computer science jobs in the United States, from an economic and innovative perspective, we are in danger of falling behind the curve. According to the Conference Board's Help Wanted Online service, there are around 500,000 CS openings across multiple industries and states. With CS career opportunities being the second highest paid starting salaries according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, where is the disconnect?

The State of CS
Code.org is a non-profit organization that has been a leader in the vision that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. The Hour of Code was launched by Code.org in 2013 and today millions of students in over 180 countries participate in the event during Computer Science Education Week yearly. Code.org also tracks CS policy and implementation across the United States which provides valuable information in a central location for stakeholder access. A deeper dive into the statistics reveals that only 10 states have currently adopted CS standards and in 34 states CS can count towards high school graduation math or science requirements. If we take a look at the current job openings and percentage of graduates in STEM fields with computer science, we will have a lack of workforce to meet the demand and this affects innovation in our country.

CS for AZ
Arizona is seeing momentum towards CS for all in the K-12 school setting and for good reason. There are currently 9,677 open computing jobs in AZ and with only 546 computer science graduates in 2015, the numbers speak for themselves. Of all AZ schools in 2015-16, only 10% offered AP computer science courses and this amounted to the least number of AP tests taken in any other STEM subject area. Of the 438 AP tests that were taken by students, only 23% were female and 68 were underrepresented minorities. Not only are these two demographics underrepresented, but we are missing their perspective, which is something we need to change.

CS for AZ, a non-profit organization, is working with a large group of stakeholders to bring CS to all students in AZ. The organization has brought together a diverse group of educators, AZ government, business leaders, college-level educators and students, working together to provide information and support for CS standards in the state. The positive movement towards their goal can be seen, the Arizona Department of Education has recently opened the call to collect public feedback that will help guide the development of K-12 Computer Science Standards. The working groups that will be formed to develop these standards will represent K-12 educators, higher education, parents, and industry representatives in a collaborative process to ensure the standards represent a diverse population.

Skills

If we want to provide a relevant education for our students we should be supporting them with the skills and exposure necessary to be able to leave the K-12 setting prepared to pursue whatever path they choose. Computer Science skills are not limited to coding but can be used to reinforce such areas as problem-solving, data collection, testing, and analysis, in engaging ways that can apply to a variety of disciplines. Working together we can provide the opportunities for our students to have the skills to solve today's problems and tomorrow's challenges, in whatever capacity they choose.

cross posted at jcastelhanothisandthat.blogspot.com

Jon Castelhano is the Executive Director of Technology for Gilbert Public Schools in Gilbert, Arizona. He serves as an advisor to the School CIO member community, a group of top tier IT professionals in schools across the country who understand and benefit from news and information not available elsewhere. Read more at jcastelhanothisandthat.blogspot.com

Neuroscience research shows that low-income students, who now comprise more than half of students in U.S. public schools, are at risk for problems with executive functions and other skills critical for learning. To meet the growing demand for interventions that address these skills, Kiko Labs today announces several enhancements to Kiko’s Thinking Time, including new games and accessibility on iOS devices, Android tablets and desktop browsers.

The latest release includes 15 new games, bringing the total number of games to 25. Together, the adaptive games include thousands of questions that train executive functions — memory, inhibition, focus, and cognitive flexibility — as well as reasoning and spatial skills. In addition, several new exercises incorporate Common Core-aligned math content, such as counting and cardinality, while reinforcing cognitive skills.

Kiko’s Thinking Time is now available for the iPads, Android tablets and desktop browsers.

PrometheanTM announced today that ClassFlow Desktop is now the software of choice for use with all Promethean interactive panels and displays. ClassFlow Desktop enables teachers to build and present interactive lessons in both offline and online computing environments.

ClassFlow Desktop delivers much of the same functionality of Promethean’s legacy interactive display software, ActivInspire™ and enables teachers with a Promethean interactive display in the classroom to:

• Create, open, and present interactive lessons and activities
• Draw and annotate over content and images
• Launch instant digital whiteboard for freestyle writing and drawing
• Snapshot screen and save with students
• Record audio and/or video

To learn more, visit www.ClassFlow.com/desktop.

Here is a list of readings on the subject of artificial intelligence. Rather than the soundbites containing doom-laden predictions that we keep hearing about our future role in the world, these are longer and more reasoned articles, and one book.

Read more.

cross-posted at www.ictineducation.org

Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Digital Education."

While it's fashionable to decry the use of computer labs, still they continue to exist in many schools. If you have, or are thinking of having, a computer lab, what ought it to look like?

It's better to start by considering function rather than design. That is to say, think about how you'd like pupils and teachers to use the room.

The following are my ideal features.

Read more.

cross-posted at www.ictineducation.org

Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Digital Education."

Tripp Lite has introduced WorkWise™ solutions, a line of height-adjustable desk tops, bases and desktop workstations that allow users to stand for a portion of the day.

Key features include:

• Electric motor with four memory settings; bases adjust from 23.5" to 49"
• Bases and desk tops are sold separately to provide a variety of color, shape and size configurations
• Desk tops are made in the U.S.A. from recycled wood fibers certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative
• Desktop workstations adapt a traditional desk or table for sit-stand use without modifying the entire worksurface
• Oversized keyboard trays
• Compatible with Tripp Lite accessories, including display mounts and a clamp-on surge protector with USB charging ports

For more information on Tripp Lite's new product line, visit: Workwise Solutions of Sit-Stand Desks and Desktop Workstations.

Kensington®today introduced its new SmartFit® Dual Monitor Arm Mount, which allows users to add a second external display to their desktops.

The Kensington Dual Monitor Arm Mount has two adjustable arms that support up to 24” monitors, and with SmartFit features, users can find their optimal height setting to reduce neck, back and vision strain.

SmartFit® Dual Monitor Arm Mount — (K60273; $229.99)

Features include:

• SmartFit System – Allows users to select their personal height setting using the included color-coded fitting chart to set the mount at a personalized height
• Two Adjustable Monitor Arms – Dual pivot points provide vertical, horizontal, and distance adjustment to angle and rotate displays measuring up to 24”
• VESA Compatible – Monitors are attached to the arms via 75mm or 100mm VESA mounts
• Cable Management – Helps reduce cable clutter on the desktop by feeding cords down the neck of the mount
• Assembly – The system attaches to the edge of a desktop so the monitors can be up and running in a matter of minutes

The SmartFit Dual Monitor Arm Mount will be available to order on Kensington.com mid-August.

I don't like to waste a minute. When I was teaching, even the apparent "downtime" was planned. If you have just one hour a week with students, every second counts. So how ight you make use of 5 minutes, whether at the start or end of the lesson, or between finishing one activity and starting the next? Here are my suggestions, some of which may be more appropriate to some age groups than others.

Give out homework

This is best done at the start of the lesson, not at the end as is usually the case. The reason is that it gives you more time to make sure everyone understands it and that everyone has made a note of it.

Plan your work

Read more.

cross-posted at www.ictineducation.org

Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Digital Education."

we feel so lonely now that everyone has
moved over to the computer roombroken?is that a bug or a feature?

Testing: For better and/or for worse, many education systems are built around it (although some perhaps not as much as others). In numerous countries, a long-standing joke asks whether 'MOE' stands for 'Ministry of Education', or 'Ministry of Examination'? (This joke is not meant to be funny, of course.)

'Testing' is a source of and trigger for controversies of all different sorts, in different places around the world. The word 'standardized' is considered negative by many people when it is used to modify 'testing', but it is perhaps worth noting that a lack of 'standardized' tests can have important implications for equity. Within the U.S., the Obama administration recently declared that students should spend no more than 2% of classroom instruction time taking tests. However one feels about the wisdom of setting such hard targets (one could argue, for instance, that it's not 'testing' per se that's the problem, to the extent that it is indeed a problem, but rather 'bad testing') and the various types of time accounting shenanigans that might predictably emerge so that the letter but not the spirit of such declarations are met (a school could be creative about what it feels constitutes a 'test' or 'instruction time', for example), there is no denying the centrality of testing to approaches to education in schools around the world.

'Testing' means different things to different people. There are important distinctions between assessments that are formative (i.e. low stakes means to provide feedback to teachers and students on how much students are learning, as a way to identify strengths and weaknesses and act accordingly) and those that are summative (e.g. high stakes final exams).

It's also potentially worth noting that tests can be utilized not only as means of assessment, but explicitly as tools to help learning we well (an approach sometimes called 'studying by testing'; here's an interesting related paper: When Does Testing Enhance Retention? A Distribution-Based Interpretation of Retrieval as a Memory Modifier [pdf]).

The point here is not to get into a debate about testing, as illuminating and energetic (or frustrating and political) as such a debate might be. Rather, it is to shine a light on some related things happening at the frontier of activities and experiences in this area that are comparatively little known in most of the world but which may be increasingly relevant to many education systems in the coming years.

The nature of tests and testing is changing, enabled in large part by new technologies. (Side note: One way to predict where there are going to be large upcoming public sector procurement activities to provide computing equipment and connectivity to schools is to identify places where big reforms around standardized testing are underway.) While there continues to be growing interest (and hype, and discussion, and confusion) surrounding the potential for technology to enable more 'personalized learning', less remarked on in many quarters is the potential rise in more personalized testing.

The science fiction author William Gibson has famously observed that, The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed. When it comes to educational technology use around the world, there are lots of interesting 'innovations at the edges' that are happening far away from the spots where one might reflexively look (like Seoul, Silicon Valley or Shanghai, to cite just a few examples that begin with the letter 'S') to learn practical lessons about what might be coming next, and how this may come to pass.

When it comes to testing, one such place is ... Georgia. This is not the Georgia in the southern United States (capital = Atlanta, where people play football while wearing helmets), but rather the small, mountainous country that borders the Black Sea which emerged as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union (capital = Tbilisi, where people play football with their feet).

Georgia is the first country in the world to utilize computer adaptive testing for all of its school leaving examinations.

What does this mean, what does it look like in practice, what is there to learn from this experience, and why should we care?

---

Perhaps not surprisingly, given that the institution employs literally thousands of economists, currently provides over US$14bn in financing for education systems around the world, and is an enthusiastic advocate for more data driven decisionmaking, the World Bank devotes a great deal of time and energy into documenting activities and supporting research into topics related to educational assessments [pdf].

As an input into discussions in Armenia, where they have been considering the potential adoption of computer-adapted testing, the World Bank commissioned a background paper and case study of lessons from recent efforts in Georgia to introduce CAT-based school leaving examinations. The result -- The Introduction of Large-scale Computer Adaptive Testing in Georgia: Political Context, capacity building, implementation and lessonslearned [pdf] -- is a clear, lucid and step-by-step dissection and analysis of the Georgian experience. Its author, Dr. Steven Bakker, stopped by the World Bank recently to talk about the experiences in Georgia, together with senior officials from Georgia's Ministry of Education and its National Assessments and Examination Center (NAEC).

Bakker framed his discussion by asking (and then attempting to answer) the following question:

Why has it taken so long to introduce on-line assessments as part of large-scale, high-stakes exams
in countries with long-standing examination traditions, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States, and why could it be introduced in Georgia almost overnight?

---

Sometimes, being first to something means that you will be late to whatever comes next. In international development circles, there is much talk of the potential for 'leapfrogging' as a result of the introduction of new technologies in some places, in comparison to other places which have to deal with legacies and inertial pulls of various sorts related to 'older' ones. While such 'leapfrogging' is often celebrated and seen as inevitably 'good', it is of course possible to leapfrog in the wrong direction.

To help make sure that the Armenians were orienting themselves as well as they could during their considerations of the potential applicability of computer-adaptive testing within their education system, Bakker explored lessons from various aspects of the Georgian experience, both in his paper and during the course of a fascinating presentation. These include: the political context; the human and material resources that were needed; the process of capacity building; how stakeholders were informed; the implementation of CAT in schools; costs; the impact it had on all involved and on the educational system in Georgia; and the limitations of CAT and its current implementation of Georgia, and possible ways forward. The German military leader Carl von Clausewitz is meant to have remarked that 'amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics and implementation.' The context for von Clausewitz was war, of course, something slightly different than our context here, but in this regard Bakker's discussion was that of the 'professional'.

As with so many things, context is key, and there are many 'special' circumstances which may have led to this sort of innovation first being roll out at scale in Georgia, and not some other country. First, the country itself is small, with a population of under four million people and a land size about that of Sri Lanka or Ireland (and half the size of the U.S. state with the same name). This small size meant that a 'big bang' approach to introducing CAT for school leaving exams was feasible: It was possible (although of course not always easy, especially in rural areas) to implement in every school, all at once. In 2008, the first cohort of students to complete 12 years of compulsory education graduated (before this time, only 11 years had been required), but the school leaving exams (which were administered by the schools themselves) were rather easy and, as a result, many grade 12 students were skipping school to work with private tutors to prepare for their university entrance examinations. Introducing standard national school-leaving exams, it was hoped, would help bring many of these students back into school for their final year.

In addition, Georgia has had a number of initiatives to introduce computers and the Internet in schools, and so a basic level of both technical infrastructure and comfort level were in place (both within the education system, and across broader Georgian society) which could serve as a foundation for the introduction of something like 'computer-adaptive testing'.

Georgia had another thing going for it that many countries (especially countries of its comparatively small size and level of economic development) do not: a local population that includes technical experts with strong psychometric, mathematical and technological skills who could plan for, implement and evaluate a technically complicated initiative such as CAT.

CAT, sometimes referred to as 'tailored' testing, is a type of computer-based testing that adapts to the ability level of the person taking the test. In basic terms: If you get a question correct, you get a more difficult question. If you get a question wrong, you get an easier question. Complex computer algorithms work to adapt the difficulty level of the test questions to better match the ability level of the test-taker, reducing e.g. the number of 'easy' questions that high ability test takers are shown, as well as the number of 'hard' questions that 'lower ability' test takers are shown (being shown more questions to which you don't know the answer increases the likelihood of guessing; getting a question 'correct' because you guessed doesn't actually demonstrate that you answered that question correctly). Potential benefits of CAT include a reduction in cheating (because test takers are shown different questions) and in time sitting for an exam (because test takers don't have to 'waste' time trying to answer too many questions which are either much too difficult or much too easy). This all sounds great in theory, but in practice doing something like this, and doing it well, is rather nontrivial.

---

So: What exactly happened in Georgia?

As one account [pdf] of this initiative relates,

"In Georgia the Ministry of Education and Science decided in September 2010 to use computer adaptive testing (CAT) as the delivery mode for the re-introduced external school graduation exams and to conduct the first administration in May 2011. International experts were quite sceptical about the feasibility of a nation-wide rollout of such a logistically and technologically complex measurement instrument as a large scale CAT at such short notice. In May 2011, 44,000 students sat eight computer adaptive subject tests in one of the 1500 test centres established in Georgian schools."

This was the consequence of a short but technically rigorous consideration of a number of key questions, including:

• Is it sufficiently known if CAT delivery in a computerized testing center will indeed be more secure than paper and pencil test in a local gym?
• Will converting the [school leaving] test to CAT likely bring the expected reduction in test length?
• Does the [anticipated] reduction in test length translate to enough saved examinee seat time – which can be costly – to translate into actual monetary savings?
• Even if CAT costs more and does not substantially decrease seat time, are these disadvantages sufficiently offset by the increase in precision and security to make it worthwhile for the organization?
• Does the organization have the psychometric expertise, or is it able to afford it if an external consultant is used?
• Does the organization [NAEC] have the capacity to develop extensive [question] item banks?
• Is an affordable CAT delivery engine available for use, or does the organization have the resources to develop its own?

For a discussion of how these (and many other related) questions were answered in Georgia, both conceptually and at a practical implementation level, have a look at Bakker's paper. It's quite good. You'll find clear details about lots of things, including: computer hardware and connectivity; some nitty-gritty related to the actual test itself; the institutional structures, people and skills necessary to pull something like this off; the information and advocacy campaigns that have been integral to the roll-out; and some mundane, practical details about how the test is actually administered. Countries who wish to learn even more about all of this may be interested to know that, during most years, Georgia hosts an international conference to share lessons from its efforts in this area, as well as to learn from related developments in other parts of the world.

---

For what it's worth, here are a few things that I took away from the presentation and follow on question-and-answer session with Bakker and representatives from the ministry of education and the National Assessments and Examination Center (NAEC), as well as with World Bank colleagues who know a *lot* about assessments in general, complementing what I learned from reading the paper (I took copious notes and hopefully I understood things correctly; if/where I did not, this was undoubtedly a consequence of my own cognitive and note-taking limitations, and not the ability of many experts and practitioners who patiently and kindly tried to explain things to me):

Costs
How much does it cost to do something like this? It is difficult to say. The paper makes an attempt to identify and quantify certain costs. That said, it is worth noting (as the Georgians do, based on their experience) that many costs are not immediately apparent and/or are absorbed in other ways. There are costs to create and maintain the question bank, but they would be doing much of this anyway. There are costs related to test administration. There are costs related to computers -- although, it should be noted, schools in Georgia already have lots of computers. There are new and substantial costs related to the surveillance cameras, and the storage of the related data. But by far the largest expense relates to training, certifying and paying the 2300 test proctors who are on-site in schools.

Designing for technology constraints
The CAT, and the infrastructure to support it, were explicitly designed to work within the existing technology constraints. This was an important design consideration (and, it is worth noting, usually a rather good practice). One result: Every single keystroke a student makes while taking a test is buffered (saved), so that, if there is a problem, nothing is lost, and students can re-start from exactly where they were before, should there be any glitches.

Testing in advance of the test
Each year they hold a full scale mock online test for all 45,000 students in all 1600 testing centres about one month before the official testing commences. This has been important for a number of reasons. Perhaps most importantly, this test has meant that students, teachers, proctors, schools officials and representatives from other stakeholder groups could actually see and experience the testing environments personally, which helped to dispel many related myths and worries. As part of this effort, students take a practice test on the computers. (That said, there are challenges related to student motivations in this regard: it can be difficult for students to take a practice test like this seriously if their scores don't count, which means that the scenario isn't a perfect proxy for what happens on actual test days). A large scale, synchronous test of this sort at school testing centres across the country is also a very good test for the robustness and reliability of the technology infrastructure which makes online testing of this sort possible.

Connectivity and bandwidth
Rolling out a national program for mandatory, synchronous online testing presented an interesting connectivity challenge in Georgia: How do you ensure adequate bandwidth at schools for the test takers? For a few weeks each year, the ministry of education needs absolutely reliable, very fast and secure broadband supporting lots of concurrent users for a few hours each day, available to *all* schools in all regions of our country. It is critically important that not only all schools have access to a common minimum level of bandwidth, but that some schools do not have access to bandwidth that exceed the defined minimum acceptable levels to the extent that this provides test takers in those schools with various advantages. ISPs in many countries, especially small ones, don't typically get clients with these sorts of demands, and MOEs aren't used to negotiating for (or even spec'ing out) what they need in this regard. This means that there are new actors on both the supply and demand sides of the connectivity equation, both of which are exploring new products and services, for which competitive local markets do not (yet) exist. This makes the process of tendering rather ... challenging.

In Georgia there are currently around 1600 testing centres in use in schools. 570 of these schools had fibre connections to the Internet, the rest of the schools did not, and so these less (and in some cases un-) connected schools needed to be connected wirelessly in order to meet the minimum connectivity requirements to function as test centres. (Local wi-fi networks have been benchmarked to ensure that they are able to handle 30 concurrent students; each of whom needs 30kbps continuously for the testing application to work.) The Internet provider in Georgia has been able to provide a wireless CDMA/EVDO connection (i.e. not the standard 3G connection normally available to wireless customers in Georgia) to each school test centre. This has meant that testing centres could be installed in schools in the mountains, resulting in less stress for students who otherwise would have had to travel from their home villages to other schools in order to take part in the tests. (In some rural communities, because wireless traffic to/from schools takes precedence on the related mobile networks, during the time of testing it can be more difficult for people in the village to get a mobile signal.)

Cheating and security
A number of actions have been taken to try to prevent cheating, as well as to detect it as quickly as possible, where it might nonetheless occur. Most notably, and expensively, and intrusively, 1800 surveillance cameras were purchased and installed in schools. Within each school testing centre, empty seats were placed between each student, to make it difficult for them to whisper to each other or pass notes. (Computers were placed on the desktops in front of these empty seats, so that if a computer went down, a student could just slide over to an adjacent seat and continue with very little delay.) Monitoring software was installed on the computers, and certain basic functionality (e.g. screen shots, printing) was disabled. Internet access was also disabled except for access to the testing web site itself. A special shell or user interface ensured that test takers could only see the test on the screen, they couldn't access any other applications or windows. USB ports were also closed, disabled or removed. No mobile phones were allowed in the test centres.

(I asked if they had considered measures what have been implemented in some places in China, where drones hover above schools where tests are occurring in order to block attempts to communicate with test takers who have smuggled in phones; they had not considered this, but were intrigued that this was being done!)

These measures have meant that there has been very little apparent cheating or 'leakage' of test questions -- at least so far. It is possible for students to memorize the questions as they appear on the screen and then later share them on the Internet, but the testing authorities monitor for this in various ways, including mentions on social media (a practice that, it is worth noting, has generated controversy in other parts of the world). To date, this reportedly hasn't been a problem (or if it has been a problem, the authorities haven't discovered it yet).

The bank of test questions itself has apparently not been compromised either. (That said, there was no test in 2013, when the head of the assessments centre was dismissed. When he and his team was re-instated, there were concerns about whether the integrity of the test bank had been compromised, so an all new question bank had to be created.)

No attempts to take down the networks utilized for testing or the testing servers have yet been detected; I assume that such things are unfortunately not a matter of if, but when. (They don't -- yet -- do penetration testing, i.e. explicitly hire groups to try to hack the system in some way, sit at a testing centre and cheat, etc., but that might be something that will come with time.)

Transparency and openness
In the minds of many policymakers, there are important tradeoffs consider related to security and transparency. Where stakeholders are not able to see the individual items after the test has been completed and scored, trust is key. For a number of reasons, and as a result of numerous related actions, gaining the trust of key stakeholder groups in Georgia has been achievable. Some related questions potentially worth asking when considering the potential relevance of the Georgian experience to other countries: Do citizens trust their government with this stuff, given that it is very difficult to have such things independently audited? If the test questions are kept secret, and the algorithms at the heart of CAT remain proprietary and/or unpublished -- as has been the case in Georgia -- what measures to promote transparency and trust might be useful to consider?

Some related idle speculation:
It would potentially be possible to have the surveillance cameras installed to help prevent cheating in school test centres monitored remotely in real time ... perhaps in a call centre in another country, or even in a 'crowd-sourced' way by the general public over the Internet. My point in speculating about this isn't to suggest that such things are good ideas, rather to note that such things are becoming technically possible. Inevitably, someone will eventually propose to do such types of things, and so policymakers may wish to anticipate and start thinking about how they might feel about such proposals.

User buy-in
Soliciting and listening to feedback from a number of key stakeholders groups has been very important to this whole effort in Georgia. According to the paper, "The need for a well-planned and coordinated information campaign was seriously underestimated by the Ministry of Education, which resulted in a variety of rumors and fears of massive percentages of students failing and punitive measures being taken against under-achieving schools. Eventually, NAEC, using its image as a reliable institution and its good relations with schools, managed to convince the educational community that the test results would not be used against them, but would support them in achieving their goals."

School principals have generally been supportive of the move to CAT. They especially like that they receive feedback as a result of CAT that they didn't get before (e.g. about how their school compares to others, to see how students did on individual test item categories, etc.). That said, principals haven't liked that they couldn't see individual test questions, which makes it difficult to appeal, should someone wish to contest their score. (Students see the test questions on screen, but once they go to the next screen, they can't go back.) Generally speaking, teachers remark that CAT appears to be fair, but note that this is just one of many means of possibly assessing student performance. They especially like that CAT hasn't been used for 'accountability' purposes (i.e. to punish teachers or principals if students don't perform well enough). There is regret, but both teachers and students, that students can't change their answers once they have been entered. (On this point: Psychometricians respond that, in CAT, if you make a mistake, it doesn't really matter that you can't correct it -- at least psychometrically, realizing that you have made a mistake but are unable to correct it can impact test takers in other ways -- because basically you 'correct' things as you answer future questions to arrive in the end at your appropriate "level".) Upon completing a test, students immediately learn whether they have passed or not. Some students (and their parents) have complained that, under CAT, some students can finish the test in only 15 minutes (because they were either very high or very low scorers and so their level could be determined relatively quickly) while it took other students 45 minutes to complete a test.

The advantage and disadvantages of keeping your expertise in-house
At the NAEC, the Georgian Ministry of education has 'in-house' expertise that can plan for, manage and evaluate the entire CAT implementation process. This arrangement creates an environment supportive of iteration (constant, regular improvement over time) and ensures continuity over time, to things that might not be supported to the same extent if the entire process were to be contracted out to e.g. a private company. There are risks associated with concentrating all of this sort of expertise within a single institution, however. (Marveling at what the Georgians have done, I wondered about the potential for a company to be spun off to commercialize what has been done and sell the resulting products and services to other countries.)

Unintended consequences
The implementation of new technologies almost always bring with them unintended, and unforeseen, consequences. One example from Georgia: Like in many other countries, the Ministry of Education is keen to see a decrease in private tutoring (which some might argue is, in certain ways, an indirect privatization of education). Bringing students back to school to prepare for the school leaving exam means that they don't use this time to skip school to spend that time with their private tutor for university entrance exams. Some students, however, respond that now they feel the need to go to tutors for *both* the school leaving and the university entrance exams, meaning that there is an overall increase in private tutoring (although whether this is actually the case or not is still to be determined).

---

Taken together, lessons from the experience of Georgia to introduce computer-adaptive testing for all of its school leaving exams underscore that, in the end, success or failure when it comes to introducing new technologies in education is not really a result of the technology itself. The technology is important, of course -- indeed it is critical, and it can be difficult to 'gets thing right', especially the first time around -- but making all of the right technology decisions does not necessarily mean that an initiative will be successful as a result. In the end it is about the ability and capacity of key actors within an education system to plan for, manage, absorb and implement change. It is through this lens of change management that the successes and challenges of CAT in Georgia should perhaps best be considered. There is certainly much that can be learned in this regard from Georgia's pioneering example.

Note: The image used at the top of this post of an empty examination room ("We feel so lonely now that everyone has moved over to the computer room") comes from Wikimedia Commons and is in the public domain. The picture of the broken pencil ("broken?") comes from the Wikipedian Pwlps via Wikimedia Commons and is used according to the terms of its Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. The picture of a Luprops beetle on a pencil in Kerala ("is that a bug or a feature?") is from Mathews Sunny Kunnelpurayidom via Wikimedia Commons and is used according to the terms of its Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The final image, of a mountain peak near Ushguli, Georgia, was originally posted to Flickr by Ilan Molcho. It was discovered via Wikimedia Commons and is used according to the terms of its Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

cross posted at blogs.worldbank.org/edutech

Michael Trucano is the World Bank's Senior Education & Technology Policy Specialist and Global Lead for Innovation in Education, serving as the organization's focal point on issues at the intersection of technology use and education in middle- and low-income countries and emerging markets around the world. Read more at blogs.worldbank.org/edutech.

Evernote, version 5, now has a sleeker interface for the Windows desktop version. The navigation panes to the left are similar enough to the previous versions. I am just beginning to explore its new features, but here's some great features I've already discovered that add a even more functionality to Evernote.

• When you access a note in a notebook, Evernote now displays "Related Notes" at the bottom of the Notes Pane, suggesting other notes that might be connected to the one you are accessing.
• New Shortcuts Feature allows users to drag notes, notebooks and tags to a location in order to allow quick access.
• Window users can now attach "Reminders" to notes as they could in the Mac and iOS versions of Evernote.
• Better organization so users can more easily access to notes and notebook.
• Users can use Smarter Searching for an improved searching experience for their notes.
• Users can now use a "Card View" feature that allows for easier scanning of note content.
• Evernote offers a redesigned note editor panel and the ability to pop a note out of the pane to work on a single note.

New Windows Evenote 5 Interface

Evernote's attention to the note taking and providing users with software with lots of features continues. For more information on these features, and to download Evernote 5, check out their blog, http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/09/04/evernote-5-for-windows-is-here/.

cross posted at the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com

J. Robinson has decades of experience as a K12 Principal, Teacher, and Technology Advocate. Read more at The 21st Century Principal.

Not everything that is good, is good. Take this as an example. If I were to give my neighbour’s children some private tuition in return for a modest fee, I could go out and spend the money, thereby contributing to the local and national economy. Everyone benefits.

On the other hand, if I were to go on a really prolific one-man burglary spree, they would have to employ extra police or pay the existing police force more overtime, local residents would invest in updated security systems and the local economy would benefit even more from all this spending.

So burglary is beneficial, right?

Is burglary beneficial? Photo by John Fisher http://www.flickr.com/photos/f4niko/

Wrong! Even though there would be more spending and employment in the system, everyone agrees that you can’t regard it as good, because burglary itself and all that goes with it is bad.

In the same way, although one of the benefits of using computers is improved efficiency, if the task that is being carried out more efficiently is a task which shouldn’t be done at all, then if anything using a computer would decrease efficiency.

I was thinking of this when I wrote Evaluating a school’s computing and ICT, which included a reminder that a few years ago schools had to complete a self-evaluation form that was either 25 or 27 pages long. How ludicrous is that? No doubt there were all sorts of time-saving templates available to help, but the task itself was a waste of time.

Similarly, I am embarrassed to admit that, 15 years ago, I created a lesson planner in Word which made it dead easy to fill in a lesson plan and to format it. All you had to do was to select items from drop-down menus, such as Year Group, subject, Key Stage and so on, type in some objectives and stuff, then click a button and the form (produced in Visual Basic for Applications) would disappear and, in its place, would be a beautifully-formatted document that you could then give to an Ofsted inspector.

All good stuff, but the most valuable aspect of lesson planning is the process of planning, and a secondary benefit is to have an aid-memoir. Therefore, you don’t need all this palaver: a pencil and the back of an envelope will do fine.

It seems to me that this is one area where computing/coding and digital literacy meet: a computer program you’ve written may be brilliant in itself, but if it serves no useful purpose, it’s pointless. Pupils, when learning and doing coding, should always ask themselves, “Is this application worth creating at all?”.

cross-posted on www.ictineducation.org

Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Computers in Classrooms."

I am a heavy Chrome browser user. It's not usual for me to operate with multiple tabs open throughout the day. I might have one open to my Blog, another in Facebook, another in my Gmail, and so on. When the version of TweetDeck you're using is the Chrome Browser App, it also normally operates within a Chrome tab. You have to click on a TweetDeck Chrome tab to view the program. It is possible though, to change how the Chrome TweetDeck app behaves so that it functions more like a separate Windows application.

Of course you could install the Desktop version of TweetDeck and solve this problem. But I have noticed lately, that Twitter seems to update the Web or Chrome version first when there are new features. This means some of TweetDeck's newest features are available in the Chrome App way before the Desktop app. For example, right now, in the Chrome Browser app, the TweetDeck columns have handles and you can simply click on and drag your those columns into any order you wish. I'm sure this will be available at some point in the desktop version, but for now, it is only available in the Chrome app version.

If you would like to have your Chrome TweetDeck app behave more like a separate Windows application, here's how you do that, and you can create a shortcut to your desktop, start menu, or taskbar in the process.

Four Easy Steps to Get Chrome TweetDeck App to Behave Like a Windows App

1. Open your TweetDeck App in your Chrome browser and it will appear as a tab below like the illustration below. This is how TweetDeck in Chrome normally operates, as a tab all to its own.

Chrome Tweetdeck Tab View
2. After TweetDeck Chrome loads, go to your Chrome Settings button in the top right-hand corner. When you click on the settings button, your drop-down menu appears like below.

Chrome Browser Settings Menu
3. Select "Tools" from the Menu. Then, select “Create Application Shortcuts.” A dialogue box will appear like the one below. You can choose to pin the Application Shortcut to your Desktop, Start Menu, or Taskbar. Once you select the way you want he shortcut to appear, simply click the "Create" button. Your icon will appear as you have selected, and TweetDeck will open in its own window instead of a tab.

Chrome Application Shortcut Dialogue Box
4. Your Chrome TweetDeck app now operates from a separate window, just like the desktop app. Just click on the icon you created to access your Chrome TweetDeck app from now on.

Chrome Tweetdeck Running
This Chrome trick makes your TweetDeck Chrome App operate as its own application.

cross posted at the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com

J. Robinson has decades of experience as a K12 Principal, Teacher, and Technology Advocate. Read more at The 21st Century Principal.

Raspberry Pi

When I was a kid, one of the best things to come in the mail was the newest HeathKit Catalog. In those days, kids and adults could build their own shortwave radios for almost nothing. I never had the “almost nothing” to spend, but remember spending hours reading, looking, and rereading that catalog—dreaming of the parts it would take to create my own shortwave radio set. I built hundreds in my mind. Between Heathkit electronics’ catalogs and ads that promised squirrel monkeys, alligators, baby chick hatching, and fishing, a poor kid could dream beyond the present. I know that I wasn’t the only one to escape that way—to draw, design, and imagine. While I’m a long way from there now, Raspberry Pi (FAQs) has rejuvenated that desire to dream and build in me—and I’m hoping it will do the same for kids, their parents, and teachers. You can build a computer that works well for almost nothing—$25; you’ll just need to creatively design a case to contain it.

Yes, you read that right. Raspberry Pi is an ARM GNU/Linux computing device for $25. That’s open source, so you have to love it. Build a box for $25 and run free software on it. It has all the connections for peripherals, such as mouse, keyboard and monitor, too. I know that they’re coming out with a camera to hook into an already existing camera slot, too. The camera will cost a few more dollars, but not a lot. This is perfect for building in the garage, living room, computer classroom, or afterschool program. You can’t sit on it, but it certainly makes as much sense to build a computer as it did a stool in woodshop—and I’m thinking more. Heck, build the computer in computer lab or a classroom, and design the case in tech ed/industrial arts/shop class. You decide, but rounding up $25 dollars (Model A) to do it for a lot of students is a no brainer. There is a Model B for $35, and that’s not out of funding range either. Just the thing a PTO or PTA would love to get involved with, and I’m certain other organizations as well.

The whole Raspberry Pi concept is the brainchild of Ebon Upton and a crew of British colleagues out of the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory. Their idea was to bring back the excitement of computer science programming by developing a science project that all students could get excited about, take pride in, build themselves, and best of all—really worked. This is not a toy; these are real computing devices. Now, that’s what I call fun!

Upton can’t keep up with supply on these, yet, so you may have to order and wait. I think that they’ll figure that part out pretty quickly. It’s amazing the experiments, robotics, and interfaces you can create with these. Some have sent Raspberry Pi units into space, using a balloon, and have recorded, captured, and returned real data. This is amazing stuff. It certainly beats just shooting a model rocket in the air with a parachute. Raspberry Pi is a perfect science classroom fit. Just think of all the possibilities for collaboration—especially if you’re looking for something interdisciplinary.

What did you do in school today? Made a computer!

If you’re looking for cool, it doesn’t get cooler than this, and the price is kid and school perfect. There’s plenty of FAQs, How To, and even a book to help. And because it’s open source, everyone is figuring out, trying out, and sharing. If I had to pick one thing to put on your back to school list beyond pencils and notebooks, this would be it. Raspberry Pi should be on every opening day faculty meeting agenda, too. Kids will dream, teachers will engage students, and grandparents will remember—we used to build cool stuff that worked—and we can again.

Please check Adafruit for more Project Ideas as well as the materials to do them. It is amazing. Plenty of Raspberry Pi stuff there, too, and Arduino as well.

Ken Royal is a teacher/education and education technology blogger/reporter, video interviewer, podcaster, education event news commentator with 34 years of classroom/school and instructional technology experience. His teaching accomplishments include: 4-time district teacher of the year, Connecticut Middle School Teacher of the Year, and Bill and Melinda Gates award for Technology School of Excellence. Read more of Ken’s work at Royal Reports.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to re-invent your classroom? I have. For quite a while. Years, in fact. What would you do? Where would you start? What would your objectives be? The photo above is my lab as it appeared in September 2003, my first year teaching. Twenty-six Dell Optiplex PCs with 6.4 gb hard drives, 15" CRTs and Windows 98SE. State-of-the-art equipment at the time. (Some will recognize that giant grey box on the right - it's a projector.) Fast forward to this school year, nine years later (above). The PCs are still Dell Optiplexes, just several generations newer. Students use the SMART Board (donated to me & my classroom by SMART Corporation) every day. We have other cool tools too, like QX5 Computer Microscopes. It's an oasis of learning technologies. While the hardware has changed over the years (and my lessons have too), my students still sit at fixed stations, working on their own, for 42 minutes, once a week. Everyone does the same thing, at the same time, using the same software. It's time for a change. It's time for something new...

Let's be honest: some consider fixed labs an anachronism, a throwback to a time when computers were so expensive only a small number could be purchased and they had to be housed in a single location so that as many people as possible could utilize them. And, while labs may be the most

efficient

way to provide students with a 1:1 computing experience (albeit for just part of the day), whether or not they are the most

effective

means to do so from an instructional perspective is another matter, and the essence of what is driving our ideology. We have been talking for months about an exciting new direction for our K-4 Computer Lab. It all began as a suggestion from a parent, Mrs. Amy Hughes, an elementary technology teacher in nearby Margate, NJ. Her suggestion turned into conversations with NCS teachers and district leaders. Brainstorms erupted. A formal presentation was made to our district Curriculum Committee, and ultimately, we received approval for what we are now calling "K4STEMLAB."

The K4STEMLAB vision is to combine

the best

of what we now know as "Computer Lab" and hands-on, inquiry-driven "STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) projects in a brand-new, as-yet-undesigned mobile learning classroom space. Students will continue coming to my class, with their classroom teacher, on their assigned "Computer Lab" day. Lessons & activities will be either "ICT" (for Information & Computer Technology, essentially what we do now) or "STEM." The former may be similar to lessons we have used in the past, but reframed in a science context. The latter will be completely new units of inquiry incorporating, among other things, the

Engineering is Elementary

activities and curriculum. (I received a $3,000 grant from Raytheon Corporation to attend an EiE professional development workshop this summer and purchase materials for my classroom.) Our instructional foundation will be based on the newly-announced

Next Generation Science Standards

, as well as the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Science (5.x) and Technology (8.x), AND a creative interpretation of the Common Core Standards. Our new lab is going to ROCK!

We have seen the future and it is MOBILE, COLLABORATIVE and ALWAYS-ON

This evolution of the NCS elementary computer lab is the result of many forces converging at once. Thanks to a

very successful pilot of Google Chromebooks

in our 4th grade this year (funded by our generous community and amazing

Parent-Teacher Organization

), we are now confident that Chromebooks (the hardware) and Google Apps for Education (the software) are not only viable but essential to our instructional mission. We will still use Microsoft products, just not

exclusively

. We live in a blended world, a world where we interact with a variety of technologies every day, more and more of which are web-based. Therefore, we want to provide students with seamless access to the information and resources they need, on whatever device they are using, wherever they happen to be. Groundbreaking technologies available today (like Google Apps and Classlink's

Launchpad

product, for example) can make this possible. Our district is evaluating highly competitive proposals for enterprise wireless connectivity and we are developing appropriate "bring your own technology" policies that make sense for us. Best of all, NCS teachers and staff are at the epicenter of this effort, dedicating themselves to finding creative ways to leverage these technologies in the classroom to help students learn.

Goals of the New Program

There are many things we want to accomplish with this "reboot" of our K-4 Computer Lab program. Some can be described with references to instructional standards, others with metrics relating to skill proficiency. Our district also adopted a strategic goal this year to develop a K-8 STEM program; our efforts represent a solid step in that direction. But the most important goal, in my view at least, is developing an appreciation for scientific inquiry - and in particular, the engineering process - as shown below in this graphic from the Museum of Science:

We are confident that this framework will provide students with a powerful context to build a foundation of critical skills and an interest in careers in science, technology, math and engineering. At its core, education is all about inspiration, isn't it?

Join Us!

We will launch our new program in September, 2012. (It's going to be a busy summer.) More importantly, this is going to be a "learning year" for everyone. We are confident that we can develop a powerful new experience drawing on the strengths of our existing curriculum while we inject new, innovative and cost-effective technologies. We are looking for strategic vendor partners, collaborating classrooms, experts on learning space design, interested community members, anyone who wants to be part of this new, exciting adventure for our students. Follow the fun on our new blog:

http://blogs.ncs-nj.org/k4stemlab/

.

This post is part of a series about our plans to "reinvent" my K-4 Computer Lab class as a STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology & Math) course starting in September 2012. By "thinking out loud" here I hope to keep stakeholders apprised of our ideas, activities & progress while I gain wisdom and perspective from anyone who cares to join the conversation.

View this video to learn how to quickly add and customize a website shortcut to your desktop.

PD Tips courtesy of Atomic Learning

Below are six ideas that teachers across the globe are implementing to transform learning in their classrooms.

1. Connect home-to-school THROUGH FACEBOOK, TWITTER, BLOGS, AND WEB SITES.

2. Connect students across the globe THROUGH BLOGS AND WEB SITES.

3. Connect students with experts ON YOUTUBE.COM/EDUCATION , KAHN ACADEMY, SKYPE IN THE CLASSROOM, AND MORE.

4. Connect with the World with Livestreaming.

5. Connect with the World using Twitter.

6. Connect with Those Who Don’t Speak Your Language with GOOGLE Translation Tools.

T&L Advisor Lisa Nielsen writes for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator, and is the author of Teaching Generation Text.